Fabrication and Performance Characterization of a Disposable Micropump Actuated by Piezoelectric-Disc

Abstract

Micropumps represent one of the major components in microfluidic technology. This paper describes the fabrication and performance testing of a simple, compact, inexpensive and disposable micropump suitable for microfluidic applications. The micropump was fabricated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) which was bonded permanently on glass substrate. Piezoelectric-discs were used to actuate the micropumps. As a flow-rectifying element, the diffusers were used instead of passive check valves. The performances of the micropump, such as pump rate, were characterized. The flow rate of micropump increases with enhancing the applied voltage to piezoelectric-disc due to the increase of diaphragm deflection. The flow rate of the micropump with diffusers were about 9 μl/min when applying a 20 V square wave driving voltage at 300 Hz. This prototype can be used as a platform to develop an inexpensive micropump which is suitable to be part of a disposable microfluidic system.

Design and Fabrication of Micropump Actuated by Laser Shock Wave

“…The fabrication process was carried out at the Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, China. The technological process (see Figure 3) involves the photo lithography combined with anisotropic silicon etching and direct bonding [9,10]. Fig.…”